Missing Florida

Maybe it is just the weather turning cold, or the fact that school is getting stressful, but all I have wanted to do for the last couple weeks was go back to Florida.
I guess we didn't blog about our trip; but we did go. We were able to spend a week in August in Clearwater, Florida in a condo on the beach. It was fantastic, of course. (as was the view)

I miss the rainstorms, where the puddles are weirdly warm and you can't help but enjoy yourself even if you are soaking wet. 

Sunshine Skyway in the rain

 I miss the big clouds, big sky, green everywhere.

I miss having adventures all the time, trying to figure out what we were doing. I miss hearing David suddenly remember the names of the people who live on whatever street and have strange stories about these people.
I miss the wonderful people that have made such an impact on David and through him, my own life. Hearing their stories and meeting them. I never realized I could miss people I only knew for a few hours.

I miss swimming for the first time in the ocean. Feeling the sand rush away with the waves under my feet. 

Watching the beach tractor come out and comb the sand in the morning, clearing away the seaweed and trash, keeping things beautiful. 

I miss being alone in a crowd, just one of many, but totally content watching everyone who is so different than I am. 

I miss the sunsets, walking on the beach, watching the sky change colors, the lights come on, and the birds settle down. 

 All I can say is that I hope we are able to go back to Florida again. (soon)

Lake Powell (3 weeks later)

So, we went to Powell and swam around for a couple days. It was fun. The end.


No, not really the end. A few weeks ago we were able to go spend the last half of a week at Powell with my parents and sister, as well as some cousins, aunts, uncles, etc. My parents took a camper and a boat, so my dad had an ordeal on his hands trying to maneuver a boat with a camper on it. David and I stayed in our tent, which I think was much cooler at night than the camper would be. Although the AC in the camper was glorious. I know, we rough it.

Our first day we got a late start and after the 5-6 hour drive, didn't want to try to find a campsite in the dark that would be out of the water for three days ( the water was coming up a foot a day. So we basically had to take a 3 foot stick, tie a string to the top and drag it straight out to where it hit the ground to see where the water would be in three days.) So we parked in a small gravel pit about a half hour away from the lake and slept there. Me, my sister and David all slept in the boat, on it's trailer. It was still hooked to the truck so whenever my parents moved in the camper, the boat would shake. It was a beautiful night, totally clear with incredible stars.

David fishing like a man

My dad's 4.5lb striper

When we woke up, the slight breeze that had been keeping the gnats/bugs away had gone, so we were totally overrun with gnats. It was horrible. Even if they weren't landing on you, you formicated, so we were all constantly swatting. We quickly packed up and headed to the lake. A long time later, we were all set up and the boats had been brought from the dock over to the campsite. We headed out to explore for the day. We drove around in the boats a lot, and fished some. David and my dad each caught a couple good fish.
The last day was a lot like the first, with more fishing and ice cream at the marina. My cousin caught a catfish and while he was taking the hook out to release it, somehow he got one of the barbs stuck into the web of his hand, about 3/4 of an inch deep. He yelled for my dad to come help get it out because my dad had a good first aid kit and knows how to do stuff like that. Eventually my dad got over to his boat and distracted him and yanked it out. The fish just swam away like it wasn't even a problem. He bled a lot, but insisted that his sister take lots of pictures for Facebook.
David got to learn how to drive the boat and did wonderfully, especially because it was really windy.
We had to leave Saturday, but my dad took my sister and David out on the tube for a while. I took about 900 pictures of tubing. (I had my camera on repeat shutter, so I was just holding down the button and letting it take as many as it wanted) When I figure out how to put them together in a stop-motion type video, I will post it. It is being weird right now so I can't.
The day we left, the area we were in was being cleared out because water was about to rise over the road, probably covering it by that evening. We were able to leave before we got stuck.
Overall, it was a great trip and I look forward to doing it again next year.